Finn and Ellen

Finn, our next door neighbor, has become more of Ellen's buddy than Lucas's.  Lucas is a year and a half older than him and Ellen is only 10 months younger, so she is more on his level right now.  These two can play for hours, which I love.  And, they are super creative, but also messy!  In this scene, they were building a house for Tyson, complete with a fenced in yard.  See the boxes on top of the end table?   That is supposed to be the roof.  Ellen gets very specific ideas of what she wants and gets frustrated if she can't do it perfectly.  For example, she wanted two things that could come together in a point to make a roof, even though the table was already acting as a roof.  So we had to go in the attic and find these two boxes to make her happy.  Notice Lucas playing with Annie in the background.  Notice Tyson, not too sure about this arrangement  : )

Cute Guy

Jeff won't like this, but since the blog can only been seen by Sandy, Susan, Jeff and me, too bad.  I have to cater to my audience : ) 

Jeff had me take some head shots for his business stuff.  Here is the one that I liked the best.

Ellen and Tyson

Ellen has recently claimed Tyson as her own.  He sleeps with her at night and she is the one that carries him up the stairs to bed at night and down the stairs in the morning.  The poor guy is 11 now and has a hard time seeing and hearing.  He can go up the stairs alone, and often does around 8pm to tuck himself in to Ellen's bed : )

This development is unexpected because the reason we got a second dog in the first place was because Tyson was trying to bite Ellen whenever she tried to pick him up and baby him, which was pretty much daily.  Tyson got a break for about 6 months while Ellen played with the puppy, but now that the puppy weighs almost as much as Ellen, she has lost interest and is back to toting Tyson around like a baby.  But, he doesn't seem to mind now!  I actually like it because I feel guilty that he doesn't get all of my attention like he used to. 

Ellen does still play with Annie though!  The below picture is her big success in making a cart that she could push Annie around on.  She's so smart.  At first she put Annie in the pink basket, which has wheels, but Annie was too heavy and it wouldn't move.  Ellen said, "I got it!" and put the basket on top of Annie's bed.  Then, to solve the problem of Annie jumping out, she put her leash on her and tied the leash to the basket.  Annie doesn't look as happy as Ellen does : )

Baby Schrades is back!

It's a new year and Baby Schrades is making a comeback!  I will try to fill in the gaps over the past two years, but definitely want to record going forward. 

My first comeback entry includes photos from this past November.  They were taken quickly and aren't the best we've ever had taken, but it was still fun to capture some pictures of the whole family.  And, they are different from last year because they include a 6th family member - Annie : )
 

The Schroeders - Nov, 2014

Lucas and Annie

Ellen and Tyson

 

This picture of Ellen in the tub with Tyson is a re-do of one that we took of her and Tyson, in the same tub, on her first birthday!  It was her idea to take this picture : )  I'll have to make a separate post with the two pictures side by side.  

Front yard

This captures her personality perfectly!  Rough and tough, barefeet, and a fancy dress!

Lucas is 8.5 and Ellen is 6.

Lucas and Annie are best buds.  They play hard and both love it!

Our back patio...